WIC Organization - Polinsky Children's Center

Polinsky Children's Center

A Safe Haven for the Children, Protect the child, Preserve the family

The A.B. and Jessie Polinsky Children's Center (PCC), opened in 1994 to replace the overcrowded Hillcrest Receiving Home, is the emergency shelter for children in San Diego County. The center was built through a private-public partnership between the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation and the County of San Diego. The 92,000 square-foot facility in Kearny Mesa has accommodated up to 217 abused, abandoned and neglected children a night in age-appropriate, home-like cottages.

Polinsky Children's Center provides services to children who have been physically, sexually, and or emotionally abused, medically or physically neglected, and or have no parent or guardian.

Each month more than 400 children ages birth to seventeen are brought to the Center because it has been determined by law enforcement or an emergency response social worker that the need for protection exists. Children receive an assessment of their needs in a variety of areas and are placed as soon as possible into care with a relative approved foster home. A variety of innovative programs and services are available at the Center which provide immediate and long-term benefits to the children brought there.

The six cottages PCC can accommodate 20 to 30 infants in a fully equipped nursery. The center is designed to meet the diverse needs for children from infancy to age 18. The park-like, 10-acre campus contains a dining hall, gymnasium, and wading pools, playgrounds and a baseball field donated by the San Diego Padres.

Minor illnesses and injuries are treated in PCC's medical center, which is staffed 24-hours a day by nurses from Children's Hospital and physicians from Children's and UCSD Medical Center.

The average stay at the Center is 10-12 days but some children stay for months because of shortage of foster and group homes. More than 5,000 children were cared for at Polinsky Children's Center.

There are many ways to help. Monetary donations, as well as new toys and clothing, may be directed to the Polinsky Children's Center Foundation. Volunteers can assist with fund-raisers and in raising awareness of child abuse issues, the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation and the Polinsky Children's Center. For your information please call (858) 514-4600.